


You can stay if you want

by Antecanis



Category: The Killing
Genre: F/M, Fluff, extended scene from 3x09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 06:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antecanis/pseuds/Antecanis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fluffy extension of the scene at Linden's house in 3x09.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You can stay if you want

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, this is my first fic for The Killing. I loved the episode, especially because of all the character development (aw no poor Bullet!). Have some fluff to get over the depressing ending of the ep. I hope you like this short scene!  
> And my usual warning: English is not my mother tongue, so I'm really sorry for any mistakes I made for sure.

Holder straightened. “I need some sleep. And a shower,” He stuck his nose under his hoodie. “Uhh. It’s real bad… Real bad.” They chuckled and Linden cleared away the pictures and documents of the Seward case, while Holder got ready to leave. She paused and then said, “You know… You can stay.” She made a face that looked like a worn out smile. “If you want.”  
His first instinct was to decline the offer, but then he thought of her being alone after today in this house, cluttered with unfulfilled pledges of a new live they both would never have.  
“Alright,” he said slowly. “So uhmn I’ll take a shower or somethin’?”  
Linden smiled. “Yeah. It’s upstairs, to the left. Just take a towel from the stack.”  
“Alright”, he repeated but didn’t move for a moment, in which he hoped she’d say something more, but she didn’t, so he went upstairs. The bathroom was tiny and seemed like a remnant of another person living in this house. It was tidy and looked almost unused. No make-up or perfume in front of the mirror, just a tooth- and a hairbrush.  
Holder got rid of his clothes and climbed in the shower. The water was cold and refreshing, just like he needed it right now. He was still thinking of Davy and the way he would always feel like he failed him, just as his father had failed. A cycle he had wanted to break but couldn’t.  
When he turned off the shower, he still felt exhausted, not only physically but emotionally, too. He couldn’t describe how he had felt when the radio went silent. It had been like it wasn’t just a silence from the outside, but as if something in him had stopped breathing, too, until he had heard Linden’s voice again. Yeah, he had gotten quite… used to her. Again.  
The house was completely silent when he opened the door to the tiny bathroom. His bare feet felt cold on the wooden floor. He was wearing his shirt, which he was wearing under his hoodie before, and his boxer shorts. He had left his clothes in the bathroom. A moment went by when he was standing in the doorframe, listening to the silence. He wasn’t sure where Linden was until he saw light behind a door to his left. He knocked.  
“Come in.”  
Linden’s bedroom looked messy. Clothes were lying on the floor and on chairs, as if she had just thrown them away after taking them off.  
“Uhmn”, she said, sitting up and turning towards him. “There’s a couch in the living room. You can… you know pull it out and it’s a bed. There’s a blanket somewhere, too.”  
He nodded. “Good night, Linden.”  
“Good night.”  
But he didn’t move. It was weird seeing Linden wearing something else than her sweaters. It looked like she was wearing some sort of night gown, but he couldn’t really tell because she had the blanket pulled up to her shoulders.  
Eventually he stepped into the room and sat down at the end of the bed.  
For a few minutes they didn’t say anything, both staring somewhere in the distance, dwelling on their own gloomy thoughts.  
“Yo Linden,” Holder started. “Today, when you… when I…”  
“Holder.”, she said quietly. “Don’t.”  
He looked at her pale face and tried to smile. “I just wanted to say, y’know, I’m glad you’re alright.”  
A desultory smile appeared on her lips. “Me too.”  
Caused by a sudden impulse he moved closer and pulled her into his arms. At first she didn’t react to his embrace, but then he could feel her muscles relax and she was leaning against him. They didn’t move for what appeared to him as a very long time. He could feel her warmth through his shirt, her long hair tickling on his naked arms.  
When she pulled away he expected her to wish him good night again, but instead she moved over and he slipped without any hesitation under the warm blanket.  
They looked and smiled at each other, both worn out and exhausted by the day, with pale faces and hollow eyes. He put his arms around her again and she moved closer to him. It was all they needed now, someone to cling to, someone to trust and care for, when everything else felt like it was falling apart and slowly slipping out of their control.  
They didn’t talk and they didn’t have to in order to exactly know what the other one needed and felt that night.


End file.
